President Barack Obama of the United States spoke fulsomely about shared values between his country and India of tolerance and cultural understanding, and of sustainable economic development during his three-day visit to this week. But he could just as well have been talking about the United Arab Emirates.

Of course, the demographic scales are different. The ethnicities are different. And the political e...

For an island-nation of barely 1.3 million people who live on a speck of verdant but craggy territory in the Indian Ocean, Mauritius is more riven by the politics of communalism than one might expect in a tiny democracy. Last week’s parliamentary election showed that the enthusiasm of voters for the ballot box notwithstanding, the chal...

Now that the three-party alliance of Navin Ramgoolam has won 41 of the 60 seats in the Mauritius national parliament – more than double the number of Paul Berenger’s leftist Mouvement Militant Mauricien – there is general agreement that the 63-year-old former physician and lawyer has obtained a powerful mandate to implement economi...

Today (May 5) is Election Day here in Mauritius, and there being no electronic tallying of votes the winners and losers for the island-nation’s 62-member national parliament won’t be known for several hours after the polls close at 6 o’clock in the evening because each ballot cast by 880,000 eligible voters – out of the country’s 1.3 mi...

When I covered politics for The New York Times a very long ago in the United States and in other countries that allowed for adult franchise, a wise old editor would often caution against making projections, particularly on Election Day. Of course, those times were before smart pollsters brought their sophisticated techniques to gauge exit polls and voter sentiments, a...

PORT LOUIS, Mauritius -- Navin Ramgoolam of Mauritius, who’s leading a three-party coalition in the national parliamentary election that is scheduled for May 5, is determined to win a second consecutive term as this island-nation’s prime minister.

Anecdotal observation suggests that he’s likely to win and that, in his next five-year term, the 1.3 million people of Mauritius expect him to lead a government that will heal the growing rifts between the country’s...

(Published in Khaleej Times, April 12, 2010) Take away the stunning greenery and jagged mountains from Mauritius, take away the rolling pastures, take away the vast sugarcane plantations, and take away the bustling hamlets with their narrow twisting roads – and one could be forgiven for feeling that this is Dubai-in-the-Indian-Ocean, a clean place where waves wash gently on the shores and enterprise is encouraged. Both entities have populations of about 1...

(Published in The Hindu, April 2, 2010) PORT LOUIS, Mauritius – When Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam of Mauritius dissolved the island-state’s 70-member National Assembly late Wednesday evening and called for new elections on May 5, there seemed to be an element of political drama to his announcement. The drama, of course, was deliberate, but it had little to do with the election announcement itself: everybody in Mauritius knew that polls would be held soo...

My new book, "Mother India: A Political Biography of Indira Gandhi," has just been published by Viking Penguin (India). The 600-page book marks the 25th anniversary of the assassination of the Indian prime minister.

Review copies and author interviews can be obtained by contacting Hemali Sodhi at Penguin. Her e-mail: hemali.sodhi@in.penguingroup.com

By Howard Leedham, M.B.E. (Note: Howard Leedham, M.B.E., is Chief Executive of Burj Holding in Dubai.) During the 1980’s a British Bank used to run a television commercial using the catch phrase that it was the “The Bank that likes to say Yes”! Of course while many who watched British TV through those times can doubtless remember the phrase, probably only a few can remember the bank, which was TSB (later merged with Lloyds).&nb...

It all seems terribly familiar, the chaos and uncertainty in Iran these days -- the daily headlines that highlight protests, the television images of vast crowds in a state of agitation, the truncheon-wielding cops plowing through swarms of people, the vague sense that some major social upheaval is being generated, however inchoate. It may be premature to call today’s angst a full-scale revolution, but in my mind, at least, there are haunting resonances of wh...

The wild ride is over but don't rule out Dubai comeback By Roula Khalaf

Published in the Financial Times: April 9, 2009

Traffic is thinner, housing prices are in freefall, and hotels are more affordable. Schools that once furiously turned students away are suddenly welcoming, and snobbish sports clubs are unexpectedly friendly.

This is the new Dubai - a city that, for the fortunate ones who are holding on to their jobs, now feels a lot more pleasant. The gossip among expatriates - and ...